Underground, semi-basement apartments set to be banned

Actor Song Kang-ho looks out the window of banjiha, or a semi-basement apartment, in the Oscar-winning film ″Parasite.″ [CJ ENM]

Underground or semi-basement apartments could soon be a thing of the past in Korea.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced in a report on Wednesday a plan to improve disaster response amid climate change.

Banjiha, the cramped half-underground apartments familiar to viewers of the Oscar-winning Korean film “Parasite,” was one of the topics spotlighted in the report.

If the construction law is amended in accordance with the government's plans, no more underground apartments will be allowed to be built, except for special cases approved by the district governments such as in buildings with a low risk of flooding and buildings built on slopes.

The current law works the other way around, stipulating exceptions for cases where underground apartments are banned.

The Land Ministry announced that the government will carry this policy forward gradually, in consideration of the fact that some low-income households have no other options.

The government will buy and remodel existing underground and semi-basement apartments to transform the underground spaces into community facilities.

Some 348,000 households live on or below semi-basement level in the metropolitan area as of last year.

Some 900 households were flooded and 14 people were killed when the heaviest rain since Seoul started its weather survey in 1907 hit the capital last August.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]